Thalia's POV

"We settle this right now." Ugly #1 said, "How about a little battle to see who owns the girl. You win, and we'll give you a favor. I win, and the girl belongs to me. Forever." Noo! Not forever! I'd rather be stuck with Nico! I could see Nico processing the information. I knew he really hated me, but would he really abandon me with this creep?

"Deal." He said. Oh phew, he does have a heart. Bless his little soul. Well actually I bet Hades has already blessed it…hmm…While I was pondering over whether or not Nico had a blessed soul, he and Ugly #1 were getting ready to fight.

I was feeling a rush of affection towards Nico (totally platonic) for actually fighting for me. True, I could beat up Ugly #1 without any trouble but it was nice to know Nico was risking his pathetic life for me.

I looked up and WHOA! HOLY (bleep bleep bleep) Nico was pulling off his shirt to get ready for battle. Damn. I mean yeah I saw him shirtless when I was kidnapping him but he had been asleep, drooling, and snoring at that time. Not exactly male-model material. But now…mmm I could bake sweet squares of ambrosia on that boy. Wait! First of all, who uses "sweet squares of ambrosia" as a go to? And second when did Nico get abs?

…perhaps not completely platonic.

Anyways when my perverted mind was done…erm…day dreaming I snapped back to reality. Both Nico and Ugly #1 had a sword out. Well Nico was a demigod trained from birth to fight…and the other guy wasn't. I'll spare the poor guy the details of the fight but Nico's sword was at his neck pretty soon.

"Surrender." Nico said. Darn it, boy! Why couldn't you have gotten at least a little bit sweaty! Grr, someone up in Olympus hates me.

I mentally slapped myself. I have to return back to my time zone not drool over Nico!

"I surrender." Ugly #1 said.

Nico held out his hand and pulled the guy up, "It was a fight well fought." You're laying it on way too thick, bro., "I believe you now will do a favor for us?"

The guy nodded, "Yes we promised."

"Can you tell us where we can get transportation? Horses or something?" he asked.

"Yes just go down the street. There's a barn. Tell the stable keeper Alexander sent you. He owes me one, he'll lend you horses." And then we got the heck out of there.

OoOoOoO

Sadly Nico pulled his shirt back on and we reached the barn. It was pretty big. There's really I had to say about it.

Nico rang the bell hanging outside, "HELLO?" he yelled.

"HELLO!" a voice called back, "How can I be of assistance?" A pretty old guy with unruly brown hair came out to greet us.

"Alexander sent us!" Nico said "He said you'd lend us horses?"

"Alexander? He finally released me from my debt! Excellent! I'll choose two hardy horses and be right back!"

"Well that was easy." I remarked.

"A little too easy…" Nico mused. I ignored his pessimism and started looking at the horses that surrounded us. There were lots of different colors but I really wasn't a horse person. Yeah, I could ride but I didn't really enjoy it. I guess I got a bit lost in my thoughts looking at the cute ponies and majestic stallions that when someone tapped my shoulder I jumped and almost fell into a pile of horse poop. Luckily Nico caught me in time.

"HOLY CRAP!" I yelled I took a few breaths, "Oh, it's just you." Nico was smirking.

"Wow Thalia, never thought you'd be so jumpy…I think my stunning good looks had something to do with it?" he drawled. I colored and mentally thanked Aphrodite for not letting him know about the little spaz attack I had about his previous state of shirtlessness.

"I…err…" I realized how close we were. His eyes were really pretty. I mean, yeah they were black, but they were so full of life…ironic since he's the son of Hades? I was completely entrapped by his eyes but I realized how close we were. Close enough to kiss actually. Whoa was he leaning in? I felt myself wanting to be closer to him. His hands were still on my waist when he suddenly looked up and nearly dropped me into the pile of horse poop.

"Hey there beautiful!" he called out to someone behind me. I was cursing him under my breath, "If I didn't know better I would have thought you were the reincarnation of Aphrodite herself."

"What? Zeus not good enough?" I snarled. I turned around to see a beautiful girl in the stable. Okay, where the hell did she come from? She had really long blond hair that was shining, the "perfect" figure, soft looking skin, and pretty facial features. And yes, there were was Nico practically drooling and attempting to hit on her.

"Are you from Tennessee? Because you're the only Ten I see." He said. I wanted to gag.

"Um…" *giggle giggle*, "What's this Tennessee you speak of?" She was a giggler. I hated her.

"Oh…my bad. If I could rearrange the keyboard I'd out U and I together." He winked. She didn't understand his 21th Century pick up lines. I was fuming at this point.

"You're so sweet *giggle giggle*…but isn't that your woman over there?" she said, apparently referring to me.

"Her? No…she's my…erm…sister!" Nico said quickly.

"Sister?" I squawked, "You were about to kiss me like two seconds ago!"

"She doesn't look like your sister." The girl bit her lip, thinking. Apparently it was too much for her three brain cells to handle.

"We both have dark hair…" Nico said unconvincingly. Oh yeah? That's your best excuse?, "And we share the same father. Her mother was a slave." EXCUSE ME?

I was about to throttle him when I saw a shimmer out of the corner of my eye. The girl wasn't normal.

I took a breath and tried to act normal, "We've never met you before. Who are you?" And why the hell are you flirting with Nico?

"I'm…um…Agatha." I hate that name. I hate her more, "I'm from…um…Sparta."

"I've always wanted to meet a girl from Sparta, especially one as beautiful as you!" Nico exclaimed. The girl was shimmering more. Was she a monster?

"*giggle* thank you. You're not so bad looking yourself." She tossed her hair. Grr.

Nico beamed like he had just won the jackpot. Wait a sec…the son of Hades grinning ear-to-ear? That's pretty rare. I looked at his eyes. They looked like they were glazed over, I couldn't see the life in them. The girl must be doing something to him. Why didn't it affect me? Maybe it was a love spell.

"Well we've been here long enough. Nice meeting you, Agatha but we gotta roll." I grabbed Nico's sleeve and started dragging him out.

"But I want to stay with the pretty girl!" he whined. Screw you.

"Sorry half-blood." The girl suddenly growled, "You've lucked out." And then she pounched transforming into an empousai. Damn! I pulled out my sword and parried just in time.

What the heck? Empousai had never been known to cast love spells! If we're in ancient times it means the gods are more powerful, the monsters are more vicious, and depending on whether or not the gods have fought the Titans yet we're in major trouble. Nico's word echoed in my ears. The monsters could trick us more easily.

But I wasn't completely powerless either. In fact being here in Greece seemed to enhance my powers. I electrocuted her and then decapitated her in one clean blow. Somewhere in our battle Nico had fallen unconscious, precariously close to the horse doo-doo.

I slapped him, hard. He woke up with a start, "What the hell was that for? What happened?"

I scowled at him. I was about to explain when the stable dude came back. Well it's about time.

"Your horses are ready!" he said cheerfully.

And once again, we got the heck out of there as fast as we could.

Jealous Thalia? ;) Thanks for the 65 reviews! Review

Evil Taco Overlordxp – don't worry, the review thing wasn't about your review (your review actually made me laugh a lot lol), it's just that some people have iPods that "correct" the stuff they type so I just wanted to make sure people knew what they were being auto-corrected.